In between her mixed martial arts career, Gina Carano decided to utilize her skills in another athletic endeavour when she joined the cast of the 2008 reboot of ‘American Gladiators’.

Speaking to IGN.com she shared how she got the role as ‘Crush’.

American Gladiators was a great opportunity I can thank my agent for. Gladiators allow me to show a different side of me. While MMA is an athletic competition with some aspects of entertainment, Gladiators is entertainment with athletics. I am grateful for the opportunity because American Gladiators has also allowed me to gain exposure to a larger, national, mainstream audience.

In the game ‘The Pyramid’, Crush played the role of preventing the challengers from getting to the top of the Pyramid to claim victory. In a clever utilization of her mixed martial arts skills, you can see Crush take back mount several times on the challenger to prevent from advancing to the top of the structure.

Just like in the mixed martial arts world, Crush was easily becoming a fan favourite among the Gladiator fan base. Despite this hectic schedule she still managed doubled her time between the Gladiator Arena and mixed martial arts cage competing twice in 2008.

Althrough it only lasted two seasons, after the series wrapped up and she had her first loss in MMA, Gina would use this experience to branch out into further roles in film, television and video games.

About American Gladiators:
American Gladiators is an American competition TV show that aired on NBC and Citytv in Canada. Hosted by Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali,[1] the show matches amateur athletes against each other and the show’s own “gladiators” in contests of strength, agility, and endurance. It is a remake of the original series of the same name which ran from 1989–1996.